How To Skyrocket Your Email Subscribers With Sumo

So you’ve started a blog, and now you want to scream from the rooftops to let the world know. Facebook. Instagram. Pinterest. Twitter. You’re announcing it everywhere and crossing your fingers that people will visit. But, once you start generating consistent traffic to your blog, how are you going to convince people to subscribe?

Install Sumo for FREE. It’s a plugin that will help you generate more subscribers using their unique social share buttons, email optin forms, and many other tools. We’ve been using this WordPress plugin for a few weeks now and have already added over 150 qualified email subscribers to our list! Today, we’re going to share how to use the WordPress Sumo plugin to skyrocket your email subscribers.

What Is Sumo?

Sumo (formerly SumoMe) is a suite of tools that help you drive traffic to your website and build an email list. Currently, Sumo comes with ten free tools.

When we first heard about their plugin, we were very excited to try it. They had a sleek design, and most importantly – functional tools to help skyrocket your email conversions.

How To Install The Sumo WordPress Plugin

The Sumo app can be installed like any other WordPress plugin. Go to Plugins > Add New and search for Sumo. Once the plugin is installed, you will have to create a Sumo account. It will ask you to input your email address and create a password.

What Tools We Use The Most

Sumo currently offers 10 powerful tools for enticing new email subscribers. Of these, we use the following the most :

List Builder (aka Popups)

Share

Smart Bar

Heat Maps

List Builder (aka Popups)

The list builder is a lightbox popup with an email opt-in form. It integrates will most email marketing providers and can be scheduled to appear after a set amount of time. We integrate list builder with Convertkit to seamlessly transition our new subscribers into one place. Pretty straight forward, right?

Once the list builder is installed, we immediately change the headline to something catchy to match the topic of our blog. By default, the popup launches in “smart” mode which means that it will launch when it detects the person leaving your website. We leave it in this mode.

After changing the headline, we then tweak the design to reflect our brand colors and make it live. This has been our #1 way to gain new email subscribers.

List Builder Free Features

Customizable forms

Customizable display rules (show on all pages, certain urls, etc)

Analytics

Pro Upgrade

Support for email marketing services (MailChimp, AWeber, Convertkit and many more)

Many more different form template options (30+)

A/B Testing

Tracking and Conversion pixels

Additional form fields for collection first and last names

Smart Bar

The smart bar is a top or bottom bar for email opt-in or social sharing. It is a great way to grab your readers attention. Up until recently, the smart bar was a separate app in Sumo. Now, it is currently nested within the list builder.

We love this tool because you can use it for your latest freebie, or special offer. People love freebies and 9/10 times will opt in to become an email subscriber to download it. It’s been very effective!

Smart Bar Free Features

Collect emails, link to your CTA and more.

Mobile Optimized

A/B Testing

Customizable text, font and colors

Pro Upgrade

Integration With ConvertKit and other email marketing services

More Display Option

Social Share Buttons

Word of mouth, has and always will be the best way to make people aware of your presence online. The Sumo social share buttons give website visitors any easy way to share your content on social media. You can see ours below on the left hand side of our website.

Sumo gives you the option to change the colors and placement of the share buttons to best fit your brand. You’ll want to place the buttons in a location that receives the most traffic according to your heat map.

Heat Maps

A heat map shows you where readers and visitors are clicking (or not) the most. This is an incredibly powerful tool that can provide valuable insight when designing your website. We use the heat maps to decide where our call-to-actions should be more visible, what our visitors want more of and more.

The heat maps will track information on every single one of your website pages. They are set up in real time so you get instant results. With Sumo Pro, you can record more than 1,000 clicks per campaign on a page. We highly recommend updating for this very reason.

Sumo Pricing

When you sign up for Sumo, it is completely free unless you want to upgrade to the Pro version. We currently use the small Sumo Pro pricing because we want Sumo to automatically connect to Convertkit.

Is Sumo For You?

Whether you upgrade to Sumo Pro or not, it is an incredible tool worth trying. If you’re looking to increase your email subscribers, then you need to sign up for Sumo. Now.

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About Us

Hello, and welcome to the Moose Studio Blog! We are Josh and Michaela - a wedding photography team based in Newport Beach, California. Grab some coffee and explore our latest work, browse resources for bloggers and get a peek in our life!